Prosecutors "must take a hard line" in any case of online hate comments about the Glasgow helicopter crash, the Lord Advocate has said.
Police are investigating comments made about the tragedy which killed nine people when a police helicopter crashed into the Clutha bar on November 29.
A 16-year-old boy was arrested last week for allegedly posting sectarian and racist comments online about the incident.
Lord Advocate Frank Mulholland wants a "robust prosecution policy" and guidance is to be issued to prosecutors this week on how they should deal with hate crimes linked to the Clutha helicopter tragedy.
Procurators fiscal will be told that where it can be demonstrated that such an offence was motivated by a reaction to the events at the Clutha bar there will be a presumption in favour of criminal proceedings and all such cases must be reported for Crown Counsel's instructions.
The Lord Advocate said: "It is important that the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service demonstrates a robust prosecution policy towards such offences committed as a reaction to the incident in recognition of the fact that people died and the impact such crimes will have on their families and friends.
"This is also in consideration of the other people who were in the Clutha bar and those who attended the scene in the aftermath.
"I have made it clear that prosecutors must take a hard line against this kind of hate crime."
The first of the funerals for the victims of the crash took place yesterday with a service for helicopter pilot captain David Traill at the University of Glasgow.
Prayers were said at the service for the eight others who died in the crash.
Police Constables Kirsty Nelis, 36, and Tony Collins, 43, were on board the helicopter and the six who died inside the pub were Robert Jenkins, 61, Mark O'Prey, 44, Colin Gibson, 33, John McGarrigle, 57, Gary Arthur, 48, and Samuel McGhee, 56.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article